The Ups and the Downs

After living in Beijing for the past couple of months, I have decided it is time to do some comparisons and such. Also since it's a topic for one of my papers that's due... soon. I think this Thursday.

FOOD

One of the bestest things about China is food. They have the greatest desserts (I actually think Asian desserts are just simply splendid), just the perfect amout of sweetness. Also, their yoghurt and ice cream is heavenly. The plain yoghurt in the states doesn't compare because the plain yoghurt here actually tastes like SOMETHING instead of soured milk that strangely tastes like... nothing. The ice cream here? It's incredibly cheap (just a little over ten cents) and it has all sorts of things in it. I also have a thing for green tea or taro flavored items, so coming to China is heaven. Also, the eggplant here? It's like they infused magic in it because the eggplant in the States taste rather... bad. Here? It's amazing the amount of flavor they put into it. On the bottom side, being vegetarian and in China is not good for the following reasons:

• They'll give you a weird look when you first tell them - or they'd just nod their head
• You'll have to restate vegetarian as having NO MEAT whatsoever
• You will also have to say that seafood COUNTS as meat
• At some places, they may use oil derived from animals OR they won't have cleaned the wok that had cooked some meat and cooked your dish afterwards (one time, something was supposedly vegetarian had chunks of chicken in it)
• The only way you can be guaranteed vegetarian food is if you go to one of the few vegetarian restaurants
• In a regular restaurant, the only dishes guaranteed to be vegetarian is the vegetable only dishes that appear as pictures of the very vegetable - but raw. Even so, the vegetables here are amazing and yummy.
• On the down side, many of China's specialties have MEAT in them (i.e. Beijing = Peking Duck)

Ah yes, and though the yoghurt and ice cream selections here are delicious, the milk here may take some getting used to. They come in little special bags that are big enough for one serving and doesn't require for it to be refridgerated (I think it's pretty neat). AND there seems to only be one kind of milk: whole milk, though they have other variations like walnut, high calcium, strawberry, and chocolate. There's skim milk but it's in a larger container and required refridgeration. I drink one pack a day. :) Ah yes, and grocery shopping is best done on the streets because you can bargain for it and it's cheaper than if you buy it in the market - but make sure you clean it well and cook it well. You can even buy live fish outside as well - they behead it and scale it in front of you as well. I've seen it been done. Also, there are American fast food restaurants here as well, but it's all different. McDonald's (麥當勞) is a 24-hour restaurant that also sells corn as a side dish and offers Peach, Taro, and Pineapple Pie - but it doesn't have Apple Pie and an order of Large fries here is equivalent to an American order of Medium fries. Pizza Hut is a gourmet restaurant here, and KFC (肯德基) is a place you go to for dates.

SHOPPING

The next best thing is shopping. There are a number of places you can go to do it at including:

• 秀水街 (Xiu Shui Jie) - you can bargain here BUT they start at ridiculously high prices and in the end, you'll get ripped off anyway. It's targeted to foreigners. I've only been twice and that's it.
• 中關村 (Zhong Guan Cun) - this place is heaven for people who love (or need) electronics as you can bargain for them and everything. And there's 8 floors full of it. I got a memory card here AND got my old one fixed for free.
• 動物園 (Dong Wu Yuan) - this place is on the other side of the Beijing Zoo and it's basically this large area just for all your shopping needs. The area is actually rather large but there's this humongous building (about 5 stories high) where the locals go to and the prices are lower, there's a wide variety of clothing, and you can still bargain. It's also a main bus stop so buses from almost everywhere go there. There are shopping malls around the area and some are rather expensive.
• 西單 (Xi Dan) - This place is famous for the shopping, but the items are of better quality AND more expensive. It does range from moderately priced (expensive in my book) to expensive (outrageously out of my reach) but Beijing's largest bookstore is also there. A little further down and there's another large building where you can bargain. This place is also where I got my hair cut.
• Golden Resources Mall - This place is for the upper-middle to upper class Chinese. The stuff is expensive and it actually LOOKS like a real mall. It's nice to walk throught - but even the food's expensive.
• The street vendors and little stores are also great so look in on them.

The of the first things here is that if you look Asian, you're lucky because you won't be given the foreigner's tax because you have money. Second of all, you can always bargain unless you're at the market or a place where there's a price tag. Third of all, if nothing else works, just tell the person you don't want it anymore and/or just walk away and half the time, they'll comply to your demands. Fourth of all, counterfeit is everywhere here so just because it has a brand name and it looks real - it just means that it was faked well - unless you go to those REALLY nice places where you can see yourself reflected in the floor.

TOURISTY PLACES

There are many places you can go to in Beijing, not to mention all of China. Here are some of the must go's here:

• 香山 (Xiang Shan) = Known as Fragrance Hill in English, this park is known for its red leaves in the fall.
• 頤和園 (Yi He Yuan) = Known as the Summer Palace where China's old royal family used to go to as a summer get away and where Empress Cixi built a boat entirely of marble.
• 哦林匹克 (O Lin Pi Ke) = The Olympic Green... that's all I have to say.
• 北京動物園 (Bei Jing Dong Wu Yuan) = Beijing's Zoo
• 天安門 (Tian An Men) = Tiananmen Square
• 天壇 (Tian Tan) = Also known as the Temple of Heaven
• 故宮 (Gu Gong) = The Forbidden City
• 景山公園 (Jing Shan Gong Yuan) = Jing Shan Park is just north of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square and if you climb to the top, you can see the entire city of Beijing - from the heart of it. Great view. :)

Well, I'm going to stop here because, well, I have homework and I need to study and I need to go pick up sheets and changed my bedding, etc.